The anti-pirate circuitry disclosed herein is intended to combat the theft of intellectual property contained within integrated circuits (IC), such as patent protected circuits, copyrighted works, mask works and computer software.
Unfortunately, the theft of integrated circuit technology is not always prevented by the existence of legal barriers to its use. While a new circuit design may have significant commercial value, it may not be possible or practical to obtain or enforce patent rights in all countries of the world in which the circuit will be made, sold or used. While mask work and copyright protection may be available even if patent protection is not, the pirating and unauthorized copying of integrated circuit designs continues to cause serious economic harm to the original developers and owners of IC intellectual property.
It would, therefore, be highly desirable to have available a low cost, but effective technique for combating IC pirates.